TV & Radio Presenters
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Iain Burnside
One of Britain's most popular musical personalities, Iain Burnside has a career that spans both performance and broadcasting. As a pianist he is best known for his commitment to the song repertoire. Among artists with whom he has collaborated internationally are Susan Chilcott, Galina Gorchakova, Susan Graham, David Daniels and Bryn Terfel. His broadcasting career covers both radio and TV. As the presenter of Radio 3's weekly song slot Voices, he has been acclaimed as the most innovative DJ on radio. He has also featured as pianist and presenter of BBC World Service's series The Music Party. Current projects include a series of song CDs. The first disc in the series - Schoenberg with Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams - was released to much acclaim, and this will be followed later this year with recordings of Copland with Susan Chilcott and Debussy with Lisa Milne and Susan Bickley. For the 2003 International Bath Festival Iain has devised a weekend of song, to be jointly presented by BBC Radio 3 and the Festival. Iain Burnside is a professor at Londons Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has also given masterclasses at The Juilliard School, New York, the University of Michigan, London's South Bank Centre and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. With Edith Wiens he is co-director of a new summer programme at The Banff Centre, Canada. Iain will present daily reports from the Competition on Radio 3's Morning Performance and will also broadcast from the Final.
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Humphrey Burton
Humphrey Burton studied music and history at Cambridge University before joining the BBC in 1955. He edited the arts magazine programme Monitor, and served as the BBCs first Head of Music and Arts Programmes, resuming the position 1975-81. In the 1970s Humphrey Burton became film and TV director for Leonard Bernstein, of whom he subsequently published an award-winning biography. For his work as a director he has won four Emmies and two British Academy awards. He has published a biography of Yehudi Menuhin, and will publish a picture biography of William Walton later this year. In addition he writes regularly for both the Classic FM Magazine and the BBC Music Magazine. Humphrey Burton was awarded the CBE in the Millennium Honours. To celebrate his seventieth birthday in 2001, he conuducted the Verdi Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, ENO soloists and choirs totalling almost five hundred voices. The concert raised £75,000 for prostate cancert research. Humphrey has been a keen amateur singer since childhood and sang a number of bass-baritone roles under Colin Davis in the early days of the Chelsea Opera Group. Since the 1970's he has been responsible for opera telecasts from Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and many European houses, most recently the Aix-en-Provence production of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse with Les Arts Florissants. He has been involved with the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition from its inception, both as producer and presenter, and this year will present the Radio 3 coverage For BBC TV he produced and/or directed the telecasts of three Cardiff Singer of the World competitions and he confesses himself "absolutely delighted" to be invited back to broadcast daily commentaries from Cardiff for Radio 3.
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Gwenan Edwards
Gwenan Edwards was born in Bangor, North Wales. A Welsh speaker, Gwenan moved to London, where she worked at LWT. Later she took up a trainee journalist's position with Surrey and South London Newspapers where she was sponsored to study with the National Council for the Training of Journalists. She has worked as a journalist for independent television in Cardiff and has worked as a reporter/presenter for the BBC since 1993. She spent seven years with the BBC regional news programme, Newsroom South East, and now works increasingly for the BBCs popular News 24, where she presents their travel programme Gate 24. Having reported on Watchdog, she now hosts BBC World's own consumer travel programme Fast Track. Gwenan is a big fan of classical music and regularly attends concerts. One of her favourites is the Prom season at the Albert Hall. She plays the piano and flute - and has even played the flute live on the BBCs Children in Need! This year Gwenan works on the Competition for the third time - she will be backstage during the Final.
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Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards is known to millions of viewers as main presenter of the BBCs flagship 10 O'Clock News. He has presented a wide range of BBC programmes, including Newsnight, Panorama, and Breakfast News, and he has co-hosted two General Election results programmes on Radio 4.Huw spent over 12 years reporting politics at Westminster, and he has presented a range of programmes on classical music on BBC Two, Radio 3, Radio 4 and S4C.He was one of the lead presenters on the BBC's Millennium coverage, and the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. His future projects include Trooping the Colour, the Festival of Remembrance, and the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings.Huw was raised in Llangennech, Carmarthenshire, and attended Llanelli Boys' Grammar School. He graduated with first class honours in French from the University of Wales, Cardiff. He now lives in Clapham with his wife and five young children. Huw Edwards will present the Final on BBC Two.
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Beti George
Beti George first made her mark in the world of broadcasting as a journalist and presenter of Newyddion (the News in Welsh) for the BBC. Very soon she was given the opportunity to present music programmes for the BBC transmitted on the Welsh Fourth Channel - S4C . Music is her big interest and over the years she has been in her element working with the BBC's National Orchestra of Wales and with musicians and singers from Wales and beyond, for many and varied programmes. She also has a weekly long-established programme on Radio Cymru - Beti a'i Phobl (Beti and her People) - which will celebrate its twentieth birthday next year. She also presents the series Y Celfyddydau - The Arts - on BBC Radio Cymru. Beti George will present the live Final on BBC Radio Cymru.
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Beverley Humphreys
Beverley Humphreys' career has not been confined to the operatic stage, although, after graduating from university, that is where it began - as Rosina in The Barber of Seville for Welsh National Opera. Other roles include Carmen, Santuzza and Amneris. In this country, she has performed at all the major concert halls and at the Royal Albert Hall has sung before HM Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Across the Atlantic she has appeared in concerts from Vancouver to New York.Versatility is Beverley's hallmark. No stranger to Radio 2, 3 or 4 or to the television screen as singer and presenter, she is just as much at home with Anthony Worrel Thompson in Sing For Your Supper as she is with the music of Stephen Sondheim or Kurt Weill and slips comfortably into the classic jazz standards of the 30s and 40s. Beverley has played Gertrude Lawrence in Noel and Gertie and created the role of Vesta Tilley in Caroline Gawns play You Can All Love Me.In 1992, Beverley Humphreys was given the singular honour of being the first singer in the history of Welsh Rugby to step out onto the hallowed turf in the National Stadium, to lead the singing of the Welsh National Anthem. Beverley has written, and tours with, several one-woman shows. She is currently working on a 4-part BBC Radio series on Paul Robeson. Beverley was Programme Associate for the Millennium Songs of Praise and coordinates various major events throughout the country. She writes and presents her own weekly BBC Wales radio programme, Showtime, and hosts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales programmes for BBC Radio Wales. Her new jazz CD will be released later this year. Beverley Humphreys presents the BBC Radio Wales programmes from the Competition.
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Aled Jones
Aled Jones was born in Llandegfan, Anglesey and joined the Bangor Cathedral Choir at the age of nine. He went on to enjoy outstanding success and international recognition as a boy treble, including performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, with Leonard Bernstein at the Barbican in London and as far away as Japan. He appeared in numerous concerts at all the major halls in Britain. Aled trained at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was the youngest singing student, and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His many television appearances include four documentaries based on his life and career, including the Emmy award-winning The Treble.His recordings, all of which gained him gold and platinum discs, continue to carry the sounds of his voice all over the world. He has been the only person ever to have two classical Albums in the pop charts at the same time! In recent years, he has made appearances as a presenter on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4. In the theatre he has played roles ranging from Christopher Robin in Now we are Sixty, to Sebastian in Twelfth Night. His performance in the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat gained stunning reviews. He presents his own chat show for BBC Radio Wales, as well as a talent show for S4C. Aled is one of the main presenters on BBC One's Songs of Praise. In 2002, he released an album of religious, classical and inspirational music, his first as part of a five album deal with Universal Records. Aled Jones will present the BBC2 Wales coverage during the Competition.
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Petroc Trelawny
Petroc Trelawny broadcasts extensively for BBC Radio 3, introducing editions of the daily arts magazine In Tune and concerts, recitals and operas from across the country. He is particular associated with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, presenting their broadcasts from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, and on tour from locations as diverse as Athens and Orkney. In addition to his work with Radio 3, he is a regular presenter of Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night, has hosted various arts based series for Radio 4, and regularly contributes to the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ. This is the third time Petroc has presented the Competition for BBC Wales TV, and in the autumn he will once again present live coverage of the Leeds International Piano Competition. He has also regularly introduced concerts featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for BBC Four.Born and raised in West Cornwall, where he returns as often as possible, Petroc now lives in central London. In addition to his broadcasting work he writes on arts and cultural affairs for The Irish Times, and regularly performs spoken roles in musical works. Petroc Trelawny presents the BBC Four programmes from the Competition.
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